Maybe you played too much Monopoly as a child or it’s all the foreclosed properties selling at a deep discount. If you’re thinking about investing in single-family real estate, here's what you need to know.

Returns for equity real estate investment trusts skyrocketed nearly 28 percent each of the last two years. The question for investors is: Can that possibly happen again? Probably not, but a strengthening economy and fund flows could make for a decent year.

When it comes to real estate, Asia has a very different set of problems from the West. China, Singapore and Hong Kong have all introduced a slew of measures to combat housing markets that threaten to get out of control.

Amid all the doom and gloom, it is hard for many think of real estate as anything other than a money pit; for some, however, it is an opportunity, and, hopefully, a well of profit to be tapped. It's the optimistic, even opportunistic, side we're focusing on in our annual special report, "Investor Guide to Spring Real Estate".

If history repeats itself, the worldwide stock market could tumble even more this Friday—a week after a Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami, Yale economist Robert Shiller told CNBC Monday.